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Sustainability

Our approach to sustainability

Image: Cycling. Sustainability is a key priority for City of Bristol College, where staff and students are encouraged to play their part in creating a healthy and environmentally-friendly culture.

The idea of sustainability is concerned with ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. It is both a strategic aim and a priority for the College, and we will achieve this through a combination of sustainable environmental, economic and social practices.

As part of an overall plan for establishing a clear sustainability strategy, we recently set up a Sustainability Working Group, comprising staff and students, to help develop the College’s sustainability policy and ensure students and staff are involved in taking it forward.

During September we ran a dedicated sustainability campaign to raise awareness among staff and students of what the College is already doing to help the environment, as well as ways in which we can all adopt more sustainable lifestyles.

Staff and students are encouraged to sign up to our Personal Charter for a Sustainable College, outlining a variety of actions that will contribute to the sustainability of the College, the local environment and community. Actions include simple measures such as a commitment to switch off computers and monitors before leaving the office or teaching room each day.

The College also has an Environment Policy, which outlines in further detail our efforts to be sustainable.

We continually strive to improve on these efforts, which include the following key areas.

Travel and transport

Image: Green man. A number of measures are in place to help make the College’s travel and transport operations as sustainable as possible. We recently decided to reduce our fleet and now rely on rented vehicles, which are booked as and when they are needed. One of our requirements is that at least five per cent of these vehicles must run on alternative fuels.

To minimise the use of our postal vehicles, we do just two runs a day to all centres instead of crossing the city throughout the day, reducing the amount of fuel used.

For any removals within the College, we use a specialist company, McKeowns, which has been selected for its strong environmental credentials.

Waste

Image: Emissions. In January 2010, the College will employ a waste management company which will help us to increase our recycling output. Our aim is to boost our recycling by five per cent each year over the next six years.

We currently recycle 19 per cent of office waste and we’re investigating opportunities to recycle ‘special waste’, such as oil, tyres, paint and mercury from batteries. For example, it may be possible to extract silver nitrate from the chemicals produced by our photographic labs, which can be used again in other products.

Buildings Management

Image: Cycling. Annual surveys are carried out with consultants from the Carbon Trust, who assess the energy usage of each building at the College. We use the rating from these surveys to measure our performance and to see whether there are ways in which we can improve the energy efficiency of our buildings.

Energy bills are closely monitored and we are always looking at ways of reducing our output. For example, we have installed proximity sensors on lights at Soundwell Centre and at Cabot House at Ashley Down centre, so that they only come on when someone is in the room.

Community

Image: Community. Sustainability is an important focus of the College’s Community Investment Programme and our efforts to become more environmentally-friendly extend to the local communities in which we are based.

Among the programme’s projects are the launch of a local Charity of the Year 2010, for which staff and students have been invited to nominate their favourite cause. The charities that are successfully shortlisted will then be put to a full College vote in October.

Supply Chain and Procurement

The College’s new procurement team is working on a set of standards that will be used when selecting suppliers, with environmental credentials featuring high on the list.

Factors such as where a supplier has sourced their materials, what the goods are made from and their reputation as an environmentally-friendly organisation will be taken into consideration.

South Bristol Skills Academy

Sustainability was high on the agenda when the new South Bristol Skills Academy was being designed and it will continue to be a priority when it’s open.

For example, the Skills Academy has been designed in a way that will minimise the energy we need to use for heating, cooling and lighting, through measures such as a state-of-the-art biomass boiler to provide the base heat for the building. The wood chip boiler system will be able to operate on the widest range of biomass fuel qualities and will save an estimated 529 tonnes of CO2 per year. That’s the same amount of CO2 that a total of 94 people from Bristol use in one year.

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